


Firewhiskey Is Not A Good Mixer

by Thatmadgirlinthecorner



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Lily Luna Potter, F/M, I just want to see James Potter be baffled by Lily's existence, Marauders, Next-Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26512507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatmadgirlinthecorner/pseuds/Thatmadgirlinthecorner
Summary: After a prank war gone wrong Lily, Al and James find themselves in a Hogwarts they don't recognise, surrounded by people that look oddly familiar. Next gen time travel to the marauder era. Lots of light hearted-ish fun!
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 19
Kudos: 103





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this story, I have had an immense amount of fun writing it so far! As a new author I'd appreciate any reviews, positive feedback and constructive criticisms!

Lily Luna Potter stood, hands on hips, glaring across the room at her unsuspecting brother. In the centre of the dance floor, she had an interrupted view of her brother’s bent head discussing something with her cousin Fred. She swung her head from side to side, attempting to get a better view of him between the crowds of dancing people surrounding her. Her snooping was interrupted by a well wisher touching her shoulder and thanking her and her family for coming to the event, she forced a smile at the ministry official she was sure she was supposed to recognise, and by the time she turned her attention back to her brother, he was gone. Sighing in annoyance, Lily made her way towards the drinks table where she could see Teddy stood surveying the variety of chocolate cakes with an interest that was better placed combatting a difficult crossword.

  
“You haven’t spotted James plotting have you?” Lily glanced to her left to see Teddy smirk before consuming an eclair in one bite. He swallowed before looking at her directly.

  
“You know I want nothing to do with this ridiculous feud the two of you have started right? I stated that from the beginning.”

  
Despite his statement to the contrary, Teddy has actually been directly involved in the prank war that the Potter siblings had started since Lily had arrived home from Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays four months ago. James had decided to continue the feud with increasing escalation with every passing incident that didn’t leave Lily humiliated to a level that satisfied James’ mischievous streak. This increasing escalation meant Lily was constantly on high alert, knowing her brother’s whereabouts within three feet at all times.  
Realising Teddy was going to be no use, traitor, she filled her cup with punch and walked to the entrance of the Great Hall. Tonight was the annual victory ball for the Battle of Hogwarts, meaning that the Great Hall was filled to the brim with students, ministry officials, old Order of the Phoenix members and DA members. The theme this year was “unity” and attendees had been encouraged to be clad in the colours of another Hogwarts house that was not their own.

  
Smoothing her knee length emerald green dress, she spotted her father, dressed in navy, surrounded by a number of stuffy looking ministry officials. Harry caught her eye and winked at his daughter, pulling a face that made Lily giggle. Her mum was nowhere to be found, but this wasn’t surprising, if anyone hated these functions more than her father it was her mother. Both Potter parents supported the cause more than anyone, having the highest stakes in the outcome for the victory the ball celebrated. However, Lily had listened to her parents complain on numerous occasions that events such as these were not to celebrate the victory over Voldemort, but to kiss her father’s arse and gain political power. Therefore, it was unsurprising that after showing her face, Ginny Potter tended to disguise herself into the sea of Weasley redheads.

  
At 15 years old, Lily had experienced many of these balls. They were insufferable, everyone felt like just because her surname was Potter it meant that they could know the ins and outs of her life, private and otherwise. Tonight alone she had had three elderly women ask after her betrothal status, stating that their dashing grandson was looking for a beautiful young woman such as herself to have on their arm. These suggestions had started shortly after her thirteenth birthday, the first instance had caught her so off guard she had laughed in the ministry woman’s face so hard that her dad had to apologise so profusely when the woman started shouting about her indecent behaviour. However, Harry had later learnt the nature of the conversation and had congratulated Lily on not pulling her wand instantly. The requests had continued despite her father’s general aura of disapproval whenever an older woman approached her, however Lily’s ability to tolerate these encounters had surprisingly increased. Well, Lily mused, not completely unsurprising since Rose had informed her of her method of dealing with these types of awkward encounters. Seeing another elderly woman making a direct line for her, Lily turned her back and tipped a healthy portion of her “method of dealing” also known as Firewhisky into her glass of pumpkin juice for the fourth time that evening.

  
Lily looked around her, and short of darting directly out the doors behind her, she had minimal escape routes, she also didn’t trust her tipsy legs in the heels she was currently wearing to hold her up reliably as she ran. So she forced a smile as the woman approached her with a look of determination. Before the woman reached her, however, Lily felt two strong sets of arms loop around each of her arms and drag her back through the Great Hall doors. In a moment of panic, she started kicking out and before she could scream a hand grabbed her around the mouth. She was dragged out the entrance doors and into the chilling summer air, coming face to face with her two grinning brothers. Damn. Focusing on the approaching woman had left her vulnerable to her brother’s antics.

  
James Sirius Potter stood, head to toe in a set of deep midnight blue dress robes to match their father’s, grinning like an idiot for having panicked his little sister to the point of losing her composure. Lily glared causing him to only grin wider. Her glare darted to her left, eyeing her other brother with betrayal. Albus had not been involved in the prank war that was raging in their household, but tonight he had clearly picked a side. The traitor looked dashing in his deep maroon muggle suit. He still had his arms locked around hers forcing her to look into James’ eyes.  
Lily rolled her eyes.

“Has this not gone a bit far Jamie? If dad saw me getting dragged from the hall, we know for a fact he’d go into full Auror mode before you could blink.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re about to lose this war, oh little Lilykins! Besides, I made sure dad was thoroughly distracted before I grabbed you, I’m not stupid!”

Lily snorted, “Oh yes, James not stupid, how silly of me! Come on Al, you know you’ve picked the wrong side in this, let me go and we can get a thoroughly good prank on good old Jamie here.”

  
“Oi! Find your own ally! Now, onto the master plan!” James produced a small vial from his pocket and shook it in Lily’s face. “Do you know what this is my darling sister? This right here is an de-ageing potion, you thought you were so funny trapping my ass naked on the roof last week, well, let’s see how funny it is when little toddler Lily Luna goes running into that ball crying for her mummy and daddy!”

  
James was cackling, and Lily had to admit that it was pretty funny if the person being pranked didn’t happen to be her. She was going to have to think of something amazingly embarrassing after this, he would rue the day!

  
“So open up Lilykins!” Lily rolled her eyes and accepted her fate, knowing they would not release her without taking the potion. With a sigh opened her mouth and allowed her brother to pour the contents into her mouth.

  
No sooner did the liquid touch her, did she experience the most painful burning of her life, coughing and spluttering.

  
“Shit James what was in there? Grab her some water!” Al let go of her arms and spun to face her, standing next to James.

  
“There’s some pumpkin juice in a flask in her pocket there. Open up Lil!”

  
Lily thankfully accepted the juice, to only realise it was her secret stash of Firewhisky. The combination of the burning potion still in her mouth alongside the burning of the Firewhisky, Lily spit the contents of her mouth, completely covering herself and both her brothers. She would have laughed if she wasn’t convinced her whole body was being set on fire.

  
The last coherent thought running through her mind, was how strange her brothers looked coated in a bright blue light.


	2. Chapter 2

The first coherent thought that registers when Lily comes to, is that she is cold! So cold that she could feel it seeping into her bones as she lied there. Lied where? She opened her eyes to see the clear night sky filled with stars. How long had she been out? The sun was just setting in the early summer night when she was outside with her brothers. Her brothers!

  
Sitting up, Lily found she was sitting in what looked like a foot of snow, her two daft, and soon to be deceased brothers, to her right. They had made it snow? That wasn’t a part of James’ plan, because if it was she couldn’t see the point. Sure she was cold but knocking himself out was not James’ style. She equally couldn’t believe that Al would agree to being knocked out. They hadn’t moved from what she could tell, the castle was still in clear view and everything was the same except for the introduction of the drastic weather change.

  
The groans to her right indicated her brothers were returning to consciousness. The dazed look in both their eyes was not comforting to Lily.

  
“Oh jeez James, are you completely incapable? Not only am I still the correct age, but you produced snow? Oh wow, I’m so embarrassed!” The sarcasm dripped down her chin, as she stared at her oldest brother as he blinked and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. Lily stood and wrapped her arms around herself, happy to note that the wet patches on her dress were minimal. She pulled her wand from down her dress to dry herself, ignoring Al’s objections to not wanting to know where she stored her wand whilst wearing a dress like that. Lily felt silly with it being May, but casted a warming charm, because if her brother had brought winter weather she was damned if she was going to suffer the consequences. The blessings of being on Hogwarts ground meant she was able to perform underage magic easily.

  
“Jamie what’s with the snow?” Al was blinking owlishly around him, seeming to come to the same confused conclusion that James had somehow produced a layer of snow around the castle.

  
“I won’t lie to you lads, I have no idea what’s with the snow.” James shrugged and stood brushing off his robes and pulling Al up after him.  
Lily rolled her eyes, _another well executed plan by James Potter_. Unsteady on her feet, Lily made her way back towards the ball. She heard her brothers following behind her and threw a look over her shoulder.

  
“What was in that stuff anyway, my throat is burning.” She rubbed her throat to punctuate her statement and lifted her eyebrows at James as she pushed the entrance hall doors open.

  
“Just a potion that Fred got from Uncle George. I feel like you can’t complain at least you aren’t wearing it!”

  
“Yeah Lil, ever heard of say it, don’t spray it?” Al joined it.

  
Lily was about to reply, when all the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She quickly turned her attention to the Great Hall and stopped dead in her tracks.

  
“Where is everyone?” The Great Hall was deserted. There was no sign of the event that they had just left, no decorations, no music, and most importantly no people.

  
“How long were we out for?” Al was looking at the hall with the shock that Lily knew was also on her face.

  
“There is no way that Dad and Mum would leave without us.” Lily looked at James and silently agreed, but she also had to admit that as a group they had been known to ditch these kinds of parties early, so perhaps her parents would think that they would meet them at home. After voicing this opinion, James conceded that they should head to Professor McGonagall’s office and floo home, as the HeadMistress' office was one of the few fireplaces that was connected to the Potter’s residence.

  
The three Potters made their way through the familiar halls, with James reminiscing about his times here. Lily knew that he was jealous that his siblings still resided at the castle whilst he had to start “being a boring adult” as he had put it. However, Lily also knew that James was really coming into his own in his curse breaker training. Not that she would ever admit it in words, but Lily was very proud of her eldest brother and the looks that they shared made her know that he was aware of her admiration. When James had been accepted onto the training program two years prior, he had sought out his little sister first, before their parents or his best friend, James wanted Lily to know that he had been accepted.

  
“Alright, Evans!”

  
Lily was pulled from her thoughts by a very loud call down the hall. She looked around and saw that her brothers were also looking very confused by the very random proclamation. The hall was completely empty. No sooner had she exchanged confused looks with her brothers, when a disembodied head appeared not three feet away from her. The gasp that escaped her was involuntary. After the first head appeared it was followed by three others, and Lily recognised an invisibility cloak being removed. She was standing face to face with someone she had only seen in pictures, his long dark hair was perfect, his Gryffindor tie hanging slightly loose around his neck and he was grinning at her with mischief and humour.

Sirius Black.

Behind him stood her brother. Well, not her brother. James Potter, the original. And next to him what could only be Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

“When did you cut your hair it looks different, nice.” James Potter reached a hand forward to touch Lily’s bluntly cut bob that didn’t quite brush her shoulders. However, before he could quite reach her, Lily spun and launched at her eldest brother, pushing him hard in the chest.

“What did you do!”

Her eldest brother stuttered, seeming a loss for words while Al simply stood there staring open mouthed at the group of boys in front of them. It seemed to be Lily’s outburst that brought the attention of Lily’s brothers to the older boys. In that moment, havoc ensued with everyone talking over one another demanding to know what was going on. Al launched to grab Lily as she lunged for James again demanding to know how he had managed to pull the most morbid prank that could ever be concocted.

A shrill whistle pierced the air and the noise stopped. All turned to see Professor McGonagall, her wand raised in the air staring at the group with a stern gaze.

“What is the meaning of this? Curfew was two hours ago, the last thing I expect to find whilst on my patrol is an all out brawl ensuing in the hallway. Now will you please explain to me how James Potter has managed to perform mitosis?”

“Mitosis?”

“The biological process of multiplying” Remus muttered to the group at large.

“Thank you Mr Lupin, now I am waiting for an explanation.” Her stern gaze turned to the Potter siblings, Lily was still being restrained by Al, and all three were looking at the much younger version of Lily’s Godmother in open shock. Professor McGonagall, or Minnie as she despised but allowed the three Potters to refer to her as, was clearly not the same woman that they knew. Her hair was still a dark brown, no sign of the grey that they were accustomed to seeing, her face was free of the lines and scars of the war that she clearly had not fought in yet. Lily looked back at Al as she released her arms. Minnie knew the four marauders, she did not in fact know her or her brothers. They were the outsiders, the confusing aspect for her Godmother, not the other way around.

“You’ve really fucked it this time James.” Every head swivelled to look at Lily as she looked at her eldest brother as comprehension was dawning on all three of the young Potters’ faces.

“I see that I am not going to be getting any decent answers out of the lot of you, we’ll see what the Headmaster’s has to say about this.”  
As the group were practically frog marched down the halls under the watchful eye of the Professor, the four marauders were openly staring at the newcomers. They couldn’t figure out who they were, why did these boys look like their friend? And how did Lily Evans know them? And when did she cut her hair?

Lily followed the group of boys into the Headmaster’s office followed closely by her brothers, after being granted permission to enter. She stared around the room in shock examining all of the drastic differences between this office and the one she was used to. The confusion continued to mount, where was her Professor’s canvases of the countryside, her tartan tapestry?

The gasps of her brothers brought her eyes upon another man she had only seen in photos, however not simply family photos like in Sirius’ case, but history books both from the first war and the second. Not to mention that her brother was named after the man. Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk gazing at the group in open interest. On instinct she grabbed Al’s hand and squeezed, feeling a squeeze back she felt slightly calmer that her confusion was shared.

“And what brings this large, and slightly unexpected group, to my office this evening?” The legendary Headmaster’s gaze swept across the group as a whole and landed on James Potter and Sirius Black expectantly. It was James Potter that answered.

“I can honestly say, sir, that we had nothing to do with this one.” He looked around at his three companions who all nodded along with him. “I admit that we were taking a little trip to the kitchens, but on our way we passed Evans here and then out of nowhere there are two of me behind her, and then McGonagall shows up. Honestly Evans, you don’t need to worry I’m enough of a man to please you on my own, you don’t need to clone me to make two more.” He punctuated his last statement with a wink towards Lily that confused her and on a deep level disgusted her. It felt like her brother was coming onto her, was this boy flirting with her?

Dumbledore chuckled, before looking at Lily directly. “Miss Evans, I must insist that you enlighten us as to what has occurred to place you in the presence of these two gentlemen who do hold a striking resemblance to our Head Boy.”

Lily looked around her, and then back at the Headmaster. “Who is Miss Evans?”

This seemed to confuse the Headmaster more, and caused the group of boys to move towards her. Jamie and Al stepped in front of Lily to create a human shield in front of her, much to her annoyance.

“Guys, it’s fine. I’m just confused. Jamie, how have you managed this? Was that a hallucinogenic elixir? Because I am seeing Albus Dumbledore and if I wake up in Mungo’s after a bad trip because of you I’m going to be so pissed.” Lily looked expectantly at her brothers, but Al also looked at James expecting answers.

“I swear, it was a de-ageing potion. Like I said I got it from George. Why would I make us all have a bad trip? But we weren’t meant to de-age, only you were, so what did you do?” James turned to his sister accusingly.

“If I might interrupt,” Professor Dumbledore interrupted, “Might we get your story from the beginning and we can see what has happened here?”  
James, Al and Lily all looked at each other. Finally James sighed, as the silent communication of “you’re the oldest” was clear.

“Well you see,” James ruffled the back of his hair in a fashion that seemed to make all the marauders look from each of the James Potters in amazement. “We were at a ball for, well, we were at a ball. And we have been having a kind of war between us,” he gestured between himself and his sister, “so as part of that I got a de-ageing potion to try and make her look silly in front of everyone, harmless really. But when we got her to drink it, well she started coughing and then we gave her a drink from her flask and she spat it all over us. And then we kind of woke up in snow. And now is now.”  
Lily did everything she could not to pull a face and roll her eyes, but from the look of amusement on the Marauders’ faces she wasn’t quite successful.

“Okay Jamie, I’m going to play along,” Al started, and Lily was vindicated that it seemed he was now on her side in this prank and not James’, “So you accidentally spiked us, we wake up in a time where both Albus Dumbledore is alive, Minnie looks at least 40 years younger, and me and you have a clone who happens to be surrounded by Sirius Black and the other Marauders?”

Sirius and James shared a look. Confused was a word that James thought he understood before tonight, but he clearly had no idea the depth that confusion should go. Lily Evans, who claimed she wasn’t Lily Evans, stood next to what could only be his twins, but he had no extended family, no one to produce cousins or even distant cousins that could explain the likeness he was seeing in these two men. James eyed this girl closely, not Lily Evans was different from the girl of his affections now that he was looking closely, the resemblance was striking but this girl was shorter; her hair was noticeably different not only in style but also colour, Lily Evans had a deep auburn tone to her hair whereas this girl’s was lighter, more ginger. And her skin, it was dusted with freckles that were absent from the Lily he knew. She was also clearly younger than the seventeen he knew that Lily Evans was.

“You’re not Lily Evans.” He spoke directly to the girl, and she shook her head confirming his statement. “Who are you then?”  
James heard agreement from the boys behind him as she watched the three newcomers exchange glances. James was not convinced he was going to get an answer to his question, so he stepped forward and held out his hand to the younger girl to introduce himself.

“James Fleamont Potter, it’s nice to meet you.” The gasp seemed to leave the girl involuntarily and a look of panic filled her eyes. James quickly retracted his hand and watched as the two boys rushed to the redheaded girl.

Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat, and had a pensive look on his face, but a small smile that calmed James.

“I think some information might be in order. I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmasters of Hogwarts. The year is 1977, soon to be 1978 in approximately two weeks time.” James was confused by the Headmaster stating the year, but from the look of panic that filled the newcomers' faces, perhaps James had underestimated Professor Dumbledore’s understanding of the situation.

Al stared at his namesake and then back to his siblings. He should be thrilled, he was meeting the man that his father had stated was the bravest man he ever knew, he could ask him questions and get to know him. But the only feeling that consumed him was dread, Sirius Orion Black, Remus John Lupin, the Headmaster continued introducing the people in the room and Al tried to not let the panic consume him completely.

“So we’re in 1977?” Al let out a breath as the Headmaster nodded his head. “So either, George really messed up that potion, which is doubtful, or something went wrong.” All the occupants in the room watched as Al paced in front of his siblings clearly in thought.  
Sirius was amused by the antics of the new group. They were acting like landing at Hogwarts was the worst thing that had ever happened to them.  
“What was in that flask we made you drink after the potion?” Sirius watched as the young redhead turned an alarming shade of red and mumbled under her breath. _Firewhiskey_. Sirius smirked, the young girl had been sneaking alcohol to this ball that they were attending, now that was a girl after his own heart.

“What the hell! What are you doing bringing that to these functions? Do you know the kind of excelerant effect that firewhiskey can have on potions? It must have mixed with the de-ageing potion in your mouth and then you spat it all over us! We’re lucky we’re not dead! No we’re not dead, just 40 years in the past!” James was glaring at his sister with such intent he didn’t realise the impact that his words had on the rest of the room.  
The younger girl frowned and stood up to her full height and glared at the older boy, turning an alarming shade of red and shouting about how it wasn’t her fault he force fed her a potion. The scene of these two standing toe to toe and screaming at each other was so similar to many arguments that Sirius had witnessed between his best friend and the Head Girl it was hard to hold his laugh in, so he didn’t.  
The barking laugh behind her brought Lily back to where she was. She shouldn’t be shouting at James, they were in this together. She glanced behind her to see Sirius Black laughing at her and her brother. The situation was beyond strange, but her life was strange, and this was just another strange event that the Potters were going to have to take in their stride.

Albus Dumbledore smiled at Sirius and raised his hand to get everyone’s attention. “So is it safe to assume that the current year comes as a surprise?” Receiving three nods he continued, “And you were not expecting to be here?” Again the nods confirmed his conclusion. “Well then, time travellers are not unheard of in the wizarding world, rare yes, but not unheard of. Would it be revealing too much to ask for some introductions?”  
Lily shared a look with her brothers and James mumbled under his breath to skip the middle and surnames for the sake of ending the conversation quickly.

“James.”

“Lily.”

“Albus.” The Headmaster raised his eyebrows at the boy and smiled. He would be blind to not realise the familial resemblance between the three young men in the room, and concluded that he must have had a large impact on a Potter at some point in their lives and couldn’t help but be flattered.

“Well I must say what a fine name you have young man,” Professor Dumbledore winked at Al who gave his namesake a small smile. “Now, I noticed that your surnames were conveniently left out, I’m sorry to say that the family resemblance that the two young men have means that their anonymity is removed, but young Lily here is a slightly larger mystery. Is it safe to say you are related to Lily Evans?”

The Headmaster’s eyes fell on Lily, and she stared around at her brothers. The truth was, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t know her grandmother’s maiden name, but she knew she was named after her and she looked a lot like her. She didn’t feel comfortable revealing the future.

“I only know her by her married name, but I think I am quite certain that the answer is yes.”

James Potter frowned, she had confirmed that she was related to the girl he loved. Her married name? Lily Evans got married and had children, and he didn’t know who with. But this Lily Evans reincarnate was with what were clearly two Potter boys, maybe he stayed friends with Evans, he didn’t dare hope that Lily Evans was only known as Lily Potter and that was why this younger girl was confused.

Everyone was nodding at Lily’s statement, and James watched with a small smile as she looked at the two Potter boys who smiled encouragingly.

“So what are with the fancy outfits?” Sirius gestured to the three young adults who were still in their finest clothes. Lily glanced down at her emerald green dress, she had forgotten she was dressed in such a way, realising her warming charm must have been in place still.

“Like James said, we were at a ball. It was to celebrate unity, so we had to wear the colours of a house that wasn’t your own, hence the Slytherin green.” The four boys nodded, but Lily noticed that their expressions changed when their eyes landed on Al, whose suit was clearly representing Gryffindor house indicating that he was not a lion.

“Why’s he in red then?” Sirius gestured at Al, and her brother’s face immediately flushed. Lily could never stand to have her brother criticised for his house, not by people in her own time and certainly not by people in this one.

“Because he’d look shite in Hufflepuff yellow.” Lily spoke with a finality and fierceness that ended the line of questioning.

“I for one, think it is a lovely show of house unity.” Lily had quite forgotten that her Godmother was still in the room, she glanced over and saw Professor McGonagall looking at her with an approving gaze and Lily smiled at her.

“Well, I think this is quite enough excitement for one night. James as you are Head Boy, I believe that I am able to place the responsibility of our guest onto you? The term ends tomorrow and students who are not staying for the Christmas holidays will be gone by tomorrow morning. As you and Miss Evans have elected to stay, I think it would be safe to place these three in a guest bedroom in the Heads’ dorms. I will wish to speak with you more thoroughly tomorrow morning, so I expect all of you back here after breakfast so we can see what can be done about this situation. Goodnight all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading my fun little story! I would appreciate any reviews, so come tell me how much you're enjoying it, what you're hoping to see or anything else! 
> 
> A special thanks to Chessi for reading this chapter over for me!


	3. Chapter 3

The halls of Hogwarts were the same James noted. He glanced over at his siblings and saw that they were both standing close to him, himself and Al on either side of Lily. The Marauder’s were oddly silent, sharing glances that James could only assume was a communication that he was not privy to. 

Sirius watched as the three new teenagers stopped at Lily’s behest. She bent over to take off her high heels, using Al’s shoulder for support as she did so. Once at her true height, Sirius noticed that she was quite a lot shorter than the Lily that he knew, coming up to perhaps his chest. She was complaining about her shoes hurting her feet now that the cushioning charm had worn off and there was no point recasting it as her feet already hurt. Sirius watched as one of the boys gave Lily his suit jacket to cover herself and was warmed by the clear love that was shared by the group, and once again wondered about their relationship to each other.

James’ attention was drawn to the group in front again as his grandfather cleared his throat as they reached a tapestry of a tall tower which reminded James of the princess stories that their dad read to Lily when they were younger. 

“This is the Heads’ dorms, there’s a guest room there with a double bed and we have a coach in the common room so you can decide who sleeps where. Evans will either be in her room or in the common room and I think that I might be best explaining what’s going on rather than ambushing her with her clone.” James smiled at the younger redhead as he said this in an attempt to reduce the tension that was not diminished on their journey from the Headmaster’s office. 

Lily pulled her brother's jacket closer around her as they entered the Heads’ common room. It was similar to the Gryffindor common room, which was unsurprising considering both of the Heads this year were lions. Lily wondered if the common room would be altered depending on the house of its occupants. Her grandfather bounded up the steps when the common room was clearly devoid of Lily Evans, and silence fell among the group. Lily let her breath out as a heavy sigh and thought about the current situation that she found herself in: forty years in the past, with her grandparents, Teddy’s dad, and a future traitor. Not only were they in the past, but she couldn’t reveal her true name without upsetting the progression of a relationship between her grandparents that clearly hadn’t begun yet. The more she thought about it, the more she realised how ridiculous everything was, and her attitude was completely backwards. She was meeting people that she had only heard stories about, she could ask questions and have an adventure, is that not what she was truly about? Why were her and her brothers being so closed off? 

With a short huff of a laugh, Lily decided that enough was enough, and yes the situation was strange but she was going to make the most of it, and sitting in silence was not the way to do that. With a new purpose, she walked over to the coach and sat next to Sirius and turned to face both the dark haired boy and Remus who was sat in the armchair next to him. 

“So, have you completed the map yet, or is that still in development?”

Two shocked eyes snapped to hers, and she smirked, “Yes we know about the map,  _ Padfoot and Moony. _ ” 

Hearing the conversation, James and Al also came to join, James sitting on the arm of the coach next to Lily, and Al sitting in the armchair beside him. 

“Yes that map has kept all three of us out of trouble on a number of occasions!” The three marauders grinned at each other delighting in the map being passed down to the next generations, they started asking them questions about how much they knew about the Marauders’ adventures, when a cry of alarm was heard from upstairs. 

“I guess James got to the interesting bit, I wonder how Evans will react.” The group fell silent and tried to distinguish the voices from upstairs. When they heard the door open and the voices became more clear, Lily felt a wave of anxiety come over her. She was about to meet the woman she was named after, she knew so little about her and was desperate to know as much as she could. 

James Potter descended the stairs and into the common room looking incredibly nervous, from behind him appeared Lily Evans, her bright green eyes only previously seen in their dad and Al surveyed the room rapidly, once they fell on Lily her mouth opened as if to speak. 

“If I can interrupt what is surely a very entertaining monologue,” Lily Evans’ eyes snapped to James Sirius and widened in surprise, but did close her mouth to stop her rant, “We are from the future, James is telling the truth, no it isn’t a joke, yes my brother and I are related to your James Potter, yes Lily is related to you, we’re from about forty years in the future. I would let you rant but we’ve already been through this and I really can’t be bothered doing it again. So if it’s alright with you I’d like to skip to the part where you’ve accepted that we are from the future because it’s been a really long day.” 

Lily bit her lip to stop herself from laughing at her brother, and saw Al roll his eyes, but she really couldn’t help agreeing with James, it had been a long day and if they skipped the roller coaster of not believing to accepting that would be very beneficial. 

Lily Evans opened and closed her mouth several times before looking at the Marauder next to her, “That speech was so like you, and I don’t think anyone would choose to have that fluffy hair. Also Dumbledore sent me a message, so for fear of this blowing up in my face, I will accept that we don’t all need to be shipped to St Mungos immediately.” 

Lily was surprised that she accepted the events so quickly, but the word of the Headmaster clearly carried a lot of weight in this time. Lily Evans came and sat on a cushion in front of the fire directly opposite Lily, and was eyeing her with a great interest that was mirrored in the other redhead’s face. 

Lily looked over towards her brothers and then back at Lily Evans, “The pictures don’t do it justice, we do look oddly similar.” The two girls laughed at each other, and Lily saw the other girl square her shoulders and try to relax. 

“So, you’re my daughter?” 

“Granddaughter.” Lily corrected, and the other girl nodded and then looked at the two other time travelers, “And your James’ grandsons, do I dare ask for your full names?” Lily could see the battle playing on the Head Girl’s face, she clearly wanted to know her future and Lily couldn’t blame her, if she was faced with this situation she wasn’t sure she would be able to hold back her questions. 

“I’m not sure that would be the best idea.” Al looked around the room from his siblings to the marauder’s and his grandmother. 

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Remus looked put out that the main question wasn’t going to be answered, “how do you know each other then? How was it that you ended up here together?” 

“We were at the ball together, all the wizarding families were invited.” James dodged the question well in Lily’s opinion, but the dodge was clearly noticed by the group.

“You all seem really close, and that you knew each other well. Especially with a prank war?” James Potter eyed the three newcomers with intense interest, he was desperate to know how close they were, hoping that his life was intricately linked with the love of his life. 

James Sirius laughed nodding, “Well it was actually Lil that started that, it started small I guess at Christmas, using the invisibility cloak to move all my stuff an inch to the left so I kept walking into stuff which was incredibly annoying, so I got a rain cloud to follow her all of New Year’s, and that escalated to me being naked on the roof and then to a de-ageing potion gone wrong, and here we are.” 

Everyone was laughing by the end of James’ speech. “So I see that the desire to cause trouble is genetic!” Lily Evans laughed smirking at James, eyeing the Head Boy with amusement as he ruffled the back of his hair. She truly could not believe the situation that she had landed herself in. If a patronus from the Headmaster had not arrived as James attempted his stuttering explanation of who she would find in the common room, she would have never believed it. But her sense of adventure was peaking, she was a Gryffindor after all, and she knew that this opportunity was something she couldn’t pass up. 

“Would I be able to get changed? This dress isn’t as comfortable as it is fancy I can assure you!” Lily laughed smoothing out her green dress, she was starting to feel more comfortable with the situation she was being presented with. She had her brothers, yes they’d have to be careful to not reveal too much, but she wasn’t alone and she was technically with even more family. She was going to try and make the most of it. 

Lily followed her grandfather up the other set of stairs and into his room. She walked in and looked around as he searched through his drawers. She smiled at pictures of the Marauders on his bedside table, as she sat on the edge of the four poster bed she picked up the frame watching as the four boys laughed as they sat under a tree down by the lake. 

“Here you go, I always find that quidditch stuff is the best to sleep in.” James smiled as he handed her what looked like a practice top, jumper and a pair of jogging bottoms. 

“I agree, I stole James’ all the time before I went to Hogwarts and he was home, and then once I made the team it was literally all I wore!” Lily laughed, and was slightly surprised when James sat on the bed next to her, appraising her with interest. 

“You play quidditch? Evans has never been too into flying.” 

Lily nodded, and decided that the information wasn’t too revealing and found that talking to James was just like talking to her brothers, “Yeah both my parents played at school, but my mum was a professional she played for the Harpies she retired when I was young. So I couldn’t not play! I’m a chaser for Gryffindor, and I’ve been told I’m just as good as my mum, I’d love to play after I finish school but I want to do it off my own back, rather than because of who my parents are.” 

They continued chatting easily for a few minutes, James voicing his excitement about her mum playing professionally, and encouraging her to play herself. James was surprised by how much Lily was talking to him, she seemed so calm and comfortable in his presence, something he could only dream of achieving with Lily Evans. But if this Lily was so connected to the Potter boys, maybe all was not lost after all when it came to his relationship with Evans. 

He stood and gestured to the other door in the room, “That’s the shared bathroom, feel free to use anything, but maybe not my toothbrush.” They two laughed and Lily thanked him before walking into the bathroom. James made his way downstairs and smiled as he watched the two Potter boys gently teasing Lily and to his surprise Lily was laughing and teasing back with equal intensity. As he entered the group again, he sat on the floor next to Lily and told the two Potters that he had left some clothes on his bed for them. 

As Lily reentered the common room in her new comfortable clothes, pulling the sleeves of the familiar knitted material over her hand and taking comfort in the feel. She could feel several sets of eyes on her, and the conversations ended slowly. She eyed them all in question, before James Potter cleared his throat. 

“I guess I didn’t think how weird it would be to see ‘Potter’ written across your back.” 

Lily frowned and then realised, to these boys and Lily that she was not a Potter, she was an Evans or some undescipt surname. 

Lily Evans viewed her granddaughter and had to admit that seeing another girl, family or not, with James’ quidditch jersey on gave her an unpleasant feeling in her stomach. She had to admit that in the presence of the James who was not her Head Boy, she felt slightly flustered. The new James was clearly a few years older than them, perhaps 19 or 20, and if that was the case James Potter was only going to get more attractive, and she didn’t think that was possible. She could imagine her James becoming more defined and more mature in the coming years, and she had decided during her sixth year that she wanted to be around to see the developments. The proof that her and James’ lives were going to be linked to the point of their grandchildren knowing each other was thrilling to her, but the idea that she didn’t know anything about these children’s relationship bothered her. She wanted James Potter for her own, she knew that in herself, he wasn’t the immature bully that he was three years ago, he was a mature man who had strong morals and a loyalty that she had not witnessed in anyone else. And here in front of her in the form of a girl who could be her twin lay the answers to whether James Potter was serious about a life with her. She could ask all the questions she wanted without fear of losing a friendship with someone she wasn’t sure was romantically interested in her anymore. In that moment a plan formed in Lily Evans’ mind. 

“Lily, why don’t you come and share my room? The bed is big enough and that way the two boys can have the spare room. It would save you sleeping on the coach.” 

Lily looked up into the welcoming eyes of her grandmother and was thrilled by the idea of spending some alone time with the Head Girl, and quickly agreed.

James and Al quickly ran upstairs and got changed and met their sister before she headed up to bed. The Marauders watched in amusement as each of the boys kissed Lily on the cheek goodnight before retiring to the spare room. 

* * *

Lily watched as her grandmother entered the room from the bathroom and pulled back the covers on her four poster bed. The room was exactly the same as James’ had been, and Lily had looked at the photos that littered the room as she waited for the other girl in the bathroom. She had been intrigued by the mix of muggle and magical photos, and spent extra time looking at Lily Evans’ parents so she could tell her Dad about them once she returned home. 

Once she was sitting in bed next to her grandmother, the light was extinguished. Lily could tell the older girl wasn’t going to sleep, she could feel the tension in the air, so wasn’t surprised when Lily Evans rolled over to look in Lily’s hazel eyes. 

“Are you related to James, my James I mean.” Lily was surprised by the phrase  _ my James,  _ as far as she could tell her grandparents were not in a relationship yet so she knew that she had to tread carefully. 

When the younger girl didn’t respond but continued to look at her, Lily steeled herself to plough on, “It’s just, if you were, that might mean that James and I could be in touch after Hogwarts. And if you aren’t related you just happen to be super chummy with his offspring then I know that I’m wasting my time right now and I need to get over whatever it is I have for James. So if you could help me not waste my time I would be incredibly grateful.” 

Lily watched as her grandmother’s pleading emerald eyes bore into her own, she could see how much bravery it took for her grandmother to admit to her feelings. Lily blew out a huge breath and made the decision. She wasn’t sure if she would regret it, and she definitely knew that she should ask Al his opinion, but Al wasn’t here. 

“You’re right, we are related, I share the same name as my grandmother, my name is Lily Potter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading guys! Endless thank you to the Jily discord for endless encouragement! Reviews are loved and encouraged, they fill me with happiness!


	4. Chapter 4

Lily woke before her grandmother the next morning, her teenage grandmother. She shook her head and decided that that train of thought was something she was not going to entertain. Her and her brother were here and there was no use fretting over how weird it was, her dad faced the weirdest of all weird situations when he was her age and younger so she could deal with time travel. Hell, her dad had time traveled too, nothing was new in this family. 

Lily slid out of the bed silently and tiptoed to the other side of the room to the bathroom. Once inside she saw another door opposite from the one that she entered through, and presumed this led to the Head Boy’s room. Deciding that her grandfather seeing her in the shower was a level of weird that she could not face, whether he was a teenager or not, she locked both the doors and hopped into the shower. 

With the water running through her hair, Lily thought back on the conversation with the other Lily that she had last night, how much she had revealed and she couldn’t make herself feel bad for breaking her one rule when she saw the older girl’s reaction. 

_ “I marry James?” Lily Evans bright green eyes, the same as her brother’s and her dad’s, were wide and staring at Lily in hope. She couldn’t help but giggle, thinking back on the stories her dad had told her, however limited, and realised that Lily disliking her husband when they were teenagers might not have been correct at all.  _

_ “You do, you have my dad, who in turn has my brothers and I.” Lily squealed, literally squealed, at the information which took the younger girl by surprise. The two girls giggled together under the covers like twelve year olds as Lily told her granddaughter that she had fancied James for over six months but was scared that he had gotten over his crush on her and they were doomed to be “just friends” forever. When she asked why she had waited so long to act on her feelings, Lily blushed and told her about how she had been so stubborn about her feelings and was so scared that James was simply in it for the chase and not because he actually like her, once she realised her feelings she was so scared of being rejected that she simply hadn’t said anything.  _

_ Lily Luna had smiled and made a joke about how she was very certain that James was in it for the end game, and both girls had laughed, Lily Evans beaming until they had both fallen asleep. _

Once out of the shower, Lily wrapped a towel securely around herself and reentered the Head Girl’s room holding the clothes she had slept in. At the end of the bed she found a second trunk next to the Head Girl’s. Opening it, she found the basics she would need, a school robe and toiletries along with some socks and underwear, which made her question whether Professor Dumbledore had picked these out for her and seriously hoped he hadn’t. 

After putting on the school skirt and shirt, she noticed the tie was missing and guessed that the Headmaster hadn’t wanted to presume their school houses after Lily’s fierce response to Sirius’ questioning of Al the night before. Lily couldn't help but smirking at Al’s reaction to having to put on a red tie if the Headmaster had presumed their houses. Glancing down at James’ borrowed quidditch jersey, she decided to keep the jumper, placing it into the trunk thinking her dad would love to have something of his dad’s, and if a nice thing for her dad could come from this accident then she would ensure it would happen. 

Lily opened the door and headed down the steps into the common room. She saw Remus, Sirius and Peter asleep on the coaches and the floor, and smiled that the Marauders had wanted to be together in the face of something so strange happening. She had heard stories about how close the group of friends had been, but to see it with her own eyes was different. Her eyes landed on Peter and she frowned. She remembered asking her dad about him, asking if he was evil or whether he had simply not had a choice, and her dad had replied that everyone always has a choice, there are always more paths than the one in front of you but the one in front of you might simply be the easiest. 

Shaking her head, she decided again not to dwell on these things, they weren’t her business, she knew she couldn’t change anything. With that, she left the negativity behind her and skipped over to the spare room door, slamming it open and waking both her brothers in the process. Lily assessed their bleary eyed state as they both reached for their glasses and took a running jump onto the bed, landing on the two of them with a mighty war cry. 

Having been woken by the door slamming, the three Marauders that were asleep in the common room, rushed to the spare room to inspect the commotion. They were met with the not unusual view, if they knew the Potter children, of the three brawling on the bed. From what Sirius could tell Lily was actually winning, with the redhead bouncing up and down holding James’ glasses above her head and out of his reach, whilst Al tickled her side in an attempt to get her knee out of his stomach. 

“Concede! You know I’ve won this round boys, concede!” Lily continued to shout this as the boys struggled to gain an advantage on the surprise attack. The Marauders started to chuckle at their antics, and Remus questioned just how close these three were if Lily felt comfortable enough to barge into the room whilst the two boys were sleeping. 

“What is going on here?” James came down his stairs and into the spare room where the three on the bed froze and looked at him. 

“I’m clearly winning a wrestle, is what is happening here.” Lily smiled cheekily at the Head Boy causing him to laugh. In her moment of distraction, Al and James pushed Lily off them causing her to squeal as she fell to the floor. 

“Oi! That was rude, and after I woke you up so nicely!” Al rolled his eyes as he got up and James pushed his little sister back to the floor as she stood in retaliation to her cheek. 

“If you guys are done abusing each other,” everyone turned to see Lily Evans tying her dressing gown behind Remus, “how about we all get dressed and get breakfast. The majority of people who stay for the holidays don’t go down to breakfast so we should be fine to bring you. Anyway, I think there were only two third years staying for the holidays.” 

Lily showered first, followed by each of the Potter boys in turn, while Lily sat in the common room waiting. The other three Marauders made their way to the dorm to shower and then came back to the Heads’ dorm once everyone was ready for breakfast. Both James and Al were also in the basic Hogwarts uniform, a white shirt and trousers and both had jumpers on that the Marauders had given them. Al was sporting a green jumper with stags stitched into the material, whilst James was in a red jumper that stated he was “the dog’s bollocks.” All but Lily Evans had laughed at the inside joke as James pulled the jumper over his head. Lily had been given a sweater from her grandmother this time, a simple blue item that fit her perfectly which was surprising considering how similar she was to her grandmother. 

Once they started walking towards the Great Hall, Lily noticed her grandmother linger towards the back of the group as they walked through the halls, and was not surprised at all when James Potter gravitated towards her. Lily couldn’t hear their conversation but from their body language she could tell that the Head Girl was laying it on thick, flirting within an inch of her life, and by the confident walk of her companion, he had no objections. 

Lily quickened her step slightly to fall in with Sirius. They had spoken briefly the night before about her using the map, but she knew that her dad had really bonded with Sirius in his youth, so she was going to grasp the opportunity to also know him with both hands. 

He looked at her in surprise when she linked her arm in his, and hesitantly returned her smile when she beamed at him. 

“So, no one ever told me you were a looker.” Her cheek seemed to put him more at ease, as he barked a laugh, and shook his hair out of his face and gave an exaggerated wink in her direction. 

“Well, it is a great disservice that you were unaware of such beauty.” 

“Only one elite beauty can exist at once, and I’m afraid I have that covered in my own time so I had no use to know about your beauty. I wonder how people will cope being faced with both of our exquisite faces side by side?” The banter continued all through the journey to the Great Hall, even James and Al joined in- “Um excuse me Lily, we are both beautiful.” “You were cursed with Potter hair, pipe down” - and by the time the group entered for breakfast, Lily and Sirius were chatting like old friends. Sirius marveled at the ability that Lily had to put people at ease, she was so outgoing and confident and it reminded him of how he had immediately clicked with James on the Hogwarts express in their first year. 

Entering the Great Hall, Lily saw that it was in fact empty apart from one Slytherin boy who she immediately recognised. Lily knew from her friends that during Christmas the house tables were removed and replaced with a single round table to accommodate the smaller number of students that stayed at Hogwarts instead of going home to their families. Lily had never seen this as she had always delighted in going home to her family and spending her time carrying out the Potter/Weasley festive traditions. 

Lily looked over her shoulder at Al and saw that he too had seen Severus Snape sitting at the table eating his breakfast. The marauders were too busy talking with each other to notice the other boy, so Lily and Al made their way to the table, observing the boy they only knew as a painting. The Severus Snape they knew doted on the two of them, spending countless hours entertaining their questions with a patience that surprised their dad. The older man had no patience for Lily’s eldest brother and Lily didn’t think this bothered James all that much as he was always too busy running ragged to sit and ask the portrait any questions anyway. 

Before Lily could think of the obvious repercussions to doing so and stopping herself, she sat a seat over from the boy. 

“Hi.” 

Severus looked up confused and looked at Lily, who was beaming at him. Lily felt Al sit down in the seat next to her and lean to look at his namesake. 

“Lily?” Severus looked at her searchingly, noticing the differences in her face and, most noticeably, her hair. This wasn’t his Lily. 

“My name is Lily, but I’m not the Lily that you know. This is my brother Al,” Lily gestured to her right where Al waved, “We’re visiting from far away for a few days until we can get back to where we came from.” 

Severus frowned, this was obviously some kind of cruel joke. The marauders were notorious for these ridiculous kinds of things, and it was just cruel of Lily to join in his torture. 

“I never thought you’d stoop so low as to join in with their stupid schemes,” Snape hissed at Lily taking her aback having never seen this side to her mentor, “I never thought you’d be so cruel. I should have expected it from a stupid mudblood.” 

With his biting words Snape abruptly stood away from the table and stormed out the room, not looking back to see the hurt on Lily and Al’s faces from his words. James watched after Severus after he barged past him, and after looking at his siblings’ hurt faces, he surmised what had happened and rushed over to them. He immediately wrapped his arms around his sister and felt her return the hug tightly. 

“It’s a different time Lil, he doesn’t know you or the relationship that you’ve built with him. He isn’t the Severus that you know.” James felt Lily nod against his stomach from her seated position, and glanced over at his brother who looked stunned. Catching his eye Al shrugged his shoulders. 

“I don’t know what I expected, I didn’t expect him to be so cruel though. But you’re right it’s a different time.” 

Sirius dropped into the seat beside Al and hit him on the back affectionately, “Old Snivellus doesn’t have a nice bone in his body, what did you expect, an invitation to a tea party with his Death Eater buddies?” 

James shook his head at Sirius from over Al’s head and took the seat that was recently vacated by the Slytherin boy. 

“Hey look Lil, there’s pancakes, your favourite! I have missed Hogwarts food so much, I just can’t seem to replicate it in my flat.” Lily smiled at her brother’s attempt to cheer her up, and piled her plate with pancakes and drowned them in syrup, he was right, they were her favourite. 

“You know Snape from your time?” The question was directed at the Potter siblings from Lily Evans, she eyed them inquisitively wondering how a relationship could develop between her childhood friend and the children of a Potter considering the bad blood that she knew ran between the two in her time. 

Al shrugged and answered as he reached for his own food, “Kind of.” 

Lily wanted to ask more but James placed a hand on her knee and she closed her mouth. She looked at the boy next to him and was reminded of the conversation she had had with her granddaughter last night and blushed when James didn’t move his hand from her knee, she found that she didn’t mind at all. 

“So,” everyone turned their attention to Remus who had spoken, “As much as it is a pleasure having you here, how are you planning on getting home?” 

“I’m not too sure, there must be a way we can’t stay here forever. I don’t know a whole amount about time travel, it's not needed in my line of work at all.” James looked towards his brother who devoured information in order to take the upcoming unspeakables exam for once he graduated Hogwarts the coming summer. 

Al shrugged, “Time travel is weird and not well documented, especially after a lot of time turners were destroyed that time the Department of Mysteries were broken into.” The three Potters exchanged amused glances. 

“Time turners aren’t that powerful though,” Sirius spoke up from over his breakfast, “they allow you to travel hours not years, that’s a lot of spinning to get that many years too.” 

James nodded, finally taking his hand off the Head Girl’s knee, “if only there was a room where you could request whatever you needed, that would be so useful.” 

At James’ words Lily’s head shot up, “yes if only there was a room that gave you anything you  _ required. _ ” 

The weight of her words made her brothers look at her in question. 

“A room in the castle that currently isn’t destroyed and will give you anything you ask if the stories were true?” 

James and Al lit up with recognition. 

“Care to share with the group?” Lily looked over at the Marauders and Lily and nodded thinking how to careful word her answer to not reveal her parentage. 

“During their fifth year, all of our parents and their friends found a room that would give you anything you wanted, a place to hide things, a place to train, anything you needed. We might be able to ask for a way to return to our own time. I bet we have to word our request very specifically. We can think about it for sure.” 

“How do we not know about this room?” Sirius addressed his question to his fellow Marauders in outrage. 

“You guys not knowing about it would explain why it wasn’t on the map actually.” 

“Well let’s eat up and see what we can do, I for one want to see this room.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading again! Any reviews regarding your thoughts would be greatly apprecaited! Thank you to all the reviews so far!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The interaction later in this chapter is dedicated to Katie

After the quickest lunch of their lives, the group made their way up to the seventh floor. Lily was doing all she could to not break out into a full run up the moving staircases, which were thankfully in position for where they needed to go as if the castle knew the importance of their journey. 

“If the room is on the seventh floor, we’ll have to be careful it’s out of bounds because of construction after the fifth years blew a hole in the wall fighting and burst a pipe. Apparently magical sewer systems can’t be fixed with a repairing charm. If we get caught up there we’ll be in deep shit, so be quick about getting into the room.” Lily thought it was amusing that her grandmother wasn’t necessarily against breaking the rules, but against getting caught. A trait that she definitely saw in herself.

“I just can’t believe that we never knew about this, we’ve explored this castle, how many times? And we never came across a room that could give us anything we wanted?” Sirius seemed almost insulted that the castle had never revealed such a secret to the Marauders. Lily couldn’t help but think that it was a good thing that these boys didn’t have access to a room that could supply them with countless inconveniences for the rest of the school. She knew that her brother would have used his knowledge of this room on countless occasions to make her life miserable whilst they were both at school if it had been available to him.

“Maybe you just never needed something  _ enough.”  _ Al shrugged his shoulders as they stopped at the stretch of wall that Lily knew the room was. She had heard the stories about the DA so many times, demanding her dad tell her about all the times that he had taught the rebellious group. 

_ I need a room with a time turner that allows me to travel years forward in time.  _

_ I need a room with a time turner that allows me to travel years forward in time.  _

_ I need a room with a time turner that allows me to travel years forward in time.  _

Whilst Lily was pacing, James took out the Marauder’s Map. He knew that not adding this room’s discovery to the map would bother his completionist side, he knew it was here now so it needed to be added. He found the seventh floor on the map, saw the group standing around and was about to mark the section that Lily was pacing in front of to add the room later, when he froze. He felt the heat start in his toes and rise limb to limb until he knew for a fact that his face and ears were so red heat could be felt without touching his skin. 

“James?” 

He ignored the other, staring intently at the map, watching the name pace back and forth as he knew the girl, Lily’s granddaughter, was doing to access the room. Then the name stopped, and James looked up to see the younger girl looking at him in confusion, behind her a door had appeared in the space where a blank wall once was moments before. He could also feel the eyes of his three best mates, the girl he loved, and his grandsons on him, probably questioning his weird reaction. 

“Lily Potter.” 

Lily’s eyes widened as she drew in a sharp breath. The map. How could she forget the map? 

“It says here your name is Lily Luna Potter.” It wasn't a question, they both knew that the map never lied and that was her name, she couldn’t deny it. 

Before James could question her, or Lily could open her mouth, a noise was heard at the end of the corridor. 

“Filch! Quick everyone in.” Remus rushed forward, opened the door that Lily’s pacing had conjured. The momentary surprise evaporated and as one the group charged into the room just as Filch rounded the corner. The door slammed shut behind them and the caretaker was none-the-wiser. 

Once the shock of running into the room wore off, all of the Marauders turned to look at Lily. 

“You’re a Potter then?” It was surprisingly Peter who addressed Lily, as he was someone who had skirted around the three time travelers as if he didn’t quite know what to make of them. 

Lily blew out a breath, and knowing what she needed, two sofas that looked identical to those in the Gryffindor common room appeared in front of them. Lily took her grandmother and the Marauders to the sofas to sit. Lily noticed her two brothers did not join them, but knew that this conversation was more pressing than looking for them. 

“It said it on the map Pete, you know the map doesn’t lie it’s linked to your magical signature.” 

“Let me see then.” James went into his robe pocket to pull out the map, but felt nothing. He started patting his other pockets and looking around him, but to no avail. 

“I must have dropped it! If Filch saw it outside in the corridor he’ll definitely have confiscated it!” James swore and looked at his friends apologetically, distraught at having lost such a precious item through carelessness. 

“If it makes you feel better,” Lily spoke up, “you losing the map to Filch is how my dad ended up with the map in the first place. So, if you think about it, you losing it now was actually the best thing that you could have done.” The four boys seemed to consider this, exchanged a heavy look between them and nodded in silent communication. Lily was certain that this was what people meant when they said that the three Potter children could communicate without words and it was very disconcerting to watch. However, when growing up the children of the most famous man in their society with every eye on them at all times, they had to be able to say the things they were truly feeling without it getting printed in that evening’s paper. Each of the Potter children had learnt the hard way who they could trust and what they could say when. The constant secret keeping and trouble making that these boys got into was another example of high stakes communication, so she understood better than most the importance of the exchange that had occurred in front of her eyes. Without having spoken out loud, it was clear that James was chastised but Lily’s words were considered and he was forgiven, the entire exchange had taken no longer than 30 seconds. 

Lily watched as her grandmother eyed the boys, she could tell that the Head Girl understood that a communication was occurring, but not what was being said. It must be exhausting to be around such a tight knit group but not being privy to the information and exchanges that passed between them. Lily Evans was staring at James without any embarrassment, she knew the conversation that was about to occur and she was determined to get her opinion across if it was the death of her. 

James nodded and then directed the conversation back to Lily, “So you are a Potter? Lily Potter.” 

Lily looked towards the Head Girl before nodding. “Yes, James and Al are my older brothers.” 

“So what does that mean?” Sirius looked Lily up and down and for the first time since yesterday eyed her with slight distrust. 

“Well, it means that my parents' surnames are Potter.” 

“Don’t be cute, we’ve come this far now you might as well tell us.” Sirius shook his head and a ghost of a smile appeared as Lily blew out another breath and knew she’d been caught. What was the harm anyway, one half of her grandparents already knew it wasn’t like she was changing the course of history, she was just being honest. 

“Okay, well, James and I are named after my dad’s parents: James Potter and Lily Potter nee Evans.” 

Lily let her words settle over the group. The redhead sat beside her was running her hands up and down her thighs in anxiety staring intently at James whose eyes were fixed solely on his granddaughter. 

“We all owe you five galleons.” Remus’ words were unexpected, but seemed to break the tension that Lily’s words had left. Sirius let out a loud laugh and clapped James hard on the shoulder who seemed to still be in a state of shock. Lily hid her giggle behind her hand and glanced over at Lily who was still intensely staring at James who was still let to look at her. If Lily was honest with herself it looked like James was in a state of shock. 

Lily cocked her head to the side at the other Marauders, and as four they stood to allow the two Heads to talk about Lily’s revelation. 

“Let’s go and find my brothers yeah?” The boys nodded and Lily looked around at the room for the first time. It was one long room with shelves on each side. On both shelves there were various devices which Lily presumed were variations of the time turner based on her request to the room. Beneath each device there was a plaque describing the device's name and a brief summary of how to use it. Lily walked over with the three Marauders to her brothers who were both standing at a section of shelf and were in deep discussion. 

“Hey Lil, finally revealed our familial bond?” James laughed as Lily hit him on the arm. 

“Noticed that you two were conveniently absent for that conversation!” 

“We thought that you had it handled, and why put myself in an awkward conversation when I don’t have to!” Al laughed as Lily’s glare was directed towards him next. 

Remus laughed at the siblings’ antics, and now that he knew he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t realised their relationship purely based on their interactions, the playful banter and closeness that he had only seen in the Marauders who were described as brothers and not friends. But, Remus mused, it was easy to realise these things when you knew the information vital to understanding. 

“Anyway, what have you found?” Al explained that whilst they were chatting they’d started looking at each of the time devices and were able to quickly dismiss the first few devices based on the fact they were theoretical prototypes and had never been used before. James explained that they weren’t to be trusted as something that worked in theory very rarely worked in practice without a bit of trial and error and they shouldn’t risk more errors with time travel. Lily couldn’t help but agree with their assessments, it was a rare treat to see both of her brothers in work mode as James never brought work home and Al was in another house.

“We’ve narrowed it down to this one here. The name on the plaque, she’s an Unspeakable that I studied for my exam. She created a lot of time manipulation devices and her success rate was very high. So if I was going to place my bets on any device that has been presented by the room it would be this one.” Al picked up the device that he was referring to. It looked like a standard time turner that she had seen in her textbooks but with my dials. It was a beautiful rose gold colour which she knew differed from the traditional gold. 

James explained that there were three dials on the turner, days, months and years. Lily had to admit that it seemed simple in comparison to all of the intimidating devices that surrounded the simple one that her brothers had selected. 

“There’s one more thing,” all of their attention was directed towards Al again, “we can’t take the devices out of the room. We’ll have to use the device here.” This made sense to Lily, the room created all of the devices so they only existed in the room so logically could only be used in the room. 

“Okay then, shall we report back what’s going on and talk about how to go forward?”

X-X-X

Lily watched her granddaughter walk away with the Marauders and looked towards James. He was staring down into his lap, and didn’t look up when Lily slid into the seat next to him. 

“James?” 

He still didn’t look up and Lily felt a clenching in her chest, she thought that the knowledge that she and James were meant to be together was set in stone but now looking at him not acknowledging her she wasn’t so certain anymore. 

“I’m sorry.” 

James had spoken to softly that Lily wasn’t certain that she’d heard him. Why was he apologising to her?

“I’m sorry you were blindsided like that, I didn’t mean to put you in that position, I was just taken aback by seeing her name. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I’m so sorry Lily. If you need space and stuff I understand, I obviously love talking and being with you but finding out about Lily, well that must have been a shock for you right now, and I know you don’t feel that way about me, so yeah, I’d understand if you need some space.” 

James hadn’t looked at Lily the whole time he spoke, but delivered his speech to his lap where his hands twisting around themselves.

“James, I knew about Lily,” James’ head shot up to look at her for the first time, “she told me last night.” 

James frowned at her and stared intently, “you knew?” 

“I knew.” 

“And you’ve still been around me all morning and acting normal?” 

Lily sighed, she knew that this was the time to put all her cards on the table, but now the time was here she felt the anxiety settle deep in her stomach. 

“James, I wanted to know if our lives were intertwined through our grandchildren because our children happened to get together, or whether it was you and me. I wanted to know from my granddaughter whether I was wasting my time falling in love with you and if I’d missed my chance with you. Because I am, falling in love with you I mean.” 

“What?” James had never been so shocked in his life, he had no idea. He thought that the time that they had spent together this year had been amazing, they had been getting closer but he hadn’t let himself hope for something more, he went to bed every night telling himself that friendship was enough. 

“I’ve been falling in love with you since last year, I thought you might have gotten over me and I’d missed my chance, but hearing that from Lily well I let myself believe that maybe I still had a chance, but if that isn’t the case and you don’t want to be anything more than friends then-” Lily was abruptly cut off my James’ mouth on hers. The kiss was urgent but soft and exactly what Lily imagines kissing James would be like. 

James pulled back and looked Lily in the eye for the first time, “I never want you to say something as ridiculous as me not wanting you, ever again. Do you know how long I’ve wanted this, how long I've hoped this could happen.” 

This kiss was slow and steady, and melted Lily from the inside out and she felt at home. 

“Go out with me Evans?” 

“Always.” 

Lily looked over her shoulder when they heard the others approaching. Lily was smiling at the new couple with joy. 

“Come on you two, we have a lot to discuss. Let’s go back to the common room.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please drop a review and kudos!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this story, I have had an immense amount of fun writing it so far! As a new author I'd appreciate any reviews, positive feedback and constructive criticisms!


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